For those hot summer days there is nothing better than a blended smoothie to cool you down.

Recently we’ve learnt a lot about smoothies and there’s a secret to making the perfect one. Here’s what you need to build a great smoothie:

1. Base ingredients
2. Liquid
3. Flavour
4. Sweetener
5. Super food

Here’s a couple of our favourite smoothie recipe to get you started or use the 5 elements above to create your own perfect blend.

The Sugar Breakup Green Smoothie

This is really refreshing. One of our favourites for summer.

Ingredients
Base Ingredients: 1/2 cucumber (150g), 1/2 green capsicum (75g) 1/4 cup pineapple (75g)
Liquid: 1 cup of coconut water
Flavour: 1/4 skinned lemon
Sweetener: 1 teaspoon of The Sugar Breakup Organic Golden Rice Malt Syrup
Super food: 1 tablespoon of chia seeds

Put all the ingredients into the blender and mix until smooth. Drink immediately.

The Sugar Breakup Breakfast Smoothie

Ingredients
Base ingredients: 1 handful of Kale or spinach & 1 banana
Liquid: 1 cup of coconut water
Flavour: 1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
Sweetener: 1 teaspoon of The Sugar Breakup Organic Golden Rice Malt Syrup
Super food: 2 tablespoons of nut butter (use your favourite variety, we used almond) & 1 tablespoon of flax seed or chia seeds

Put all the ingredients into the blender and mix until smooth. Drink immediately.

We hope that this helps you understand some of the basics of making a blended smoothie. The great thing about this type of food is you can really experiment with different elements to create your own customised blends.

A few helpful tips

1. Freeze the coconut water in ice block trays and then use it in the smoothie. The icy texture gives the smoothie a lush feel in the mouth. So refreshing for summer.
2. You can use a frozen banana.
3. Remove the stem and spine from the kale and the smoothie will be smoother.
4. Leave the skin on the cucumber but remove the skin from the lemon (rind can make the smoothie bitter).
5. Most smoothies have roughage, so chew them when you drink.
6. Don’t blend your smoothies for any longer than 40sec maximum otherwise they start to warm up.